Living Magazine’s Post

We're excited to share the latest passenger rail usage statistics from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) for January to March 2024, showcasing the remarkable growth of the Elizabeth line.   🚄 This past year has been a milestone for us, achieving a total of 220 million journeys - a 54% increase from the previous year and the largest jump among all railway lines!   Additionally, in the last year, we've seen a 55% rise in passenger kilometres, a result of us implementing our full peak timetable in May 2023. Highlights from the latest quarter alone include:   🟣 55.4 million passenger journeys 🟣 2.9 million passenger train kilometres 🟣 A 30% increase in passenger kilometres   These figures are not just numbers but represent our commitment to enhancing connectivity and delivering a safe, comfortable and reliable service across London and beyond.   For more details, read the full ORR stats release here:    👉 https://lnkd.in/db6EhX7X   #ElizabethLine #MTREL #PublicTransport #RailwayExcellence #ORRStats

Interesting video about the good and bad of private rail development. Hopefully the private start to passenger rail revitalization can lead to more public-sector rail growth around the country.

Really big news this week. Alex Hynes, the MD of Scotrail, is appointed Director General for Rail at the DfT. “Marvellous news” chorused pretty much everyone. We wholeheartedly agree, but in this week’s Green Signals, Nigel Harris and I also discuss why we need to be patient and give Alex a great deal of support. Central Government departments don’t have a great track record of welcoming outsiders with open arms, especially not talented outsiders like Alex who know what they are talking about and want to crack on with pace. We also need to heed the lessons of history. I explain why the 2004 Rail Review was actually not needed - and so why this time, we need to be certain we do get what we‘ve been promised we’ll get - a joined up and empowered railway. The Heritage railways of Great Britain are one of our great tourism assets, bringing joy to millions and much a needed boost to local economies. But they are experiencing fierce economic headwinds and facing challenging times. We look at the challenges facing the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, the line made famous by the wonderfully successful ITV series “Heartbeat” to see just how challenging, and we note that it’s not just them who are facing tough times. Nigel and I also look at a bit more fares madness, the recent National Highways closure of the M25 (and some of the daftest media comments we’ve seen for a while) and we celebrate Marylebone station’s 125 birthday - not bad since it was proposed to be closed in the 1980’s and be converted into the terminus of a coach expressway from High Wycombe and beyond. Thank goodness that in these enlightened times in which we live, politicians wouldn’t dream of pandering to road users to the detriment of a low carbon option such as rail. Ah, if only…… #dft #networkrail #chilterntrains #railways #trains #heritagerailways #northyorkshiremoorsrailway #nymr #heartbeat

Amid rising challenges in European rail, Zurich, Bern, and Utrecht Centraal lead the way in passenger convenience for 2024. 🚆 Discover more in our latest Railway Index. #RailwayIndex #PublicTransport #EuropeanRailways

Southeastern Railway and Network Rail Alliance have completed a £2.6 million station improvements programme, enhancing over 20 stations across South-East London, East Sussex, and Kent. The 2023 upgrades included restoring historic booking halls at Margate and Battle, enclosing waiting rooms at Eltham, and improving accessibility at stations like Petts Wood and Canterbury East. This milestone complements Access for All schemes and a £2 million initiative to refresh over 100 stations, demonstrating a commitment to improving passenger comfort and accessibility across the network. Find out more here👉 https://bit.ly/4ikLmzE

Following the popular previous blog post on the problems facing heritage lines, today's blog post looks at the cost of heritage railway tickets and asks how high can you go, before passengers say no? https://lnkd.in/e5QeWkb7

Rail connectivity between #France and #Italy has been massively disrupted since August 2023, after a landslide caused the closure of the #FrejusRailway, the main line linking the two countries. However, recent investigations showed that the rail tunnel near the location of the landslide (Tunnel de la #Brèche) was not impacted, meaning there will be no need to rebuild the structure. #railfreight #railfreightnews #railcargonews

Simple, inclusive and discrete on London North Eastern Railway trains